It’s been a long and lovely day, filled with wonderful garden visitors, followed by some serious cutting back and clearing over near the tunnel.

However, before I begin, I must say that I’ve been reading the comments on the Bealtaine Cottage Magical Gardens site on FaceBook and feel compelled to make a very important comment, for all to read…

The lovely Bridget Birkner had this to say about her garden…

“Colette, my dear sweet friend. You know I started this year as my first year with Goddess-Inspired Permacultre Gardening and Food Forest since moving here some months ago, but being now in August, having only 1 cucumber, 6 cherry tomatoes that only turned orange and one sweet banana pepper, I wanted to sit down and cry at the lack of harvest. My soil is so insanely poor, and it looks like I need to do some more tending and research. My Willows, everything you sent me, the moment I transplanted it, it withered. I’m crushed to say the least, but I promised myself at least 10 years before I can say “goal!” It truly is hard but amazing work, but right now I feel so defeated because Mum Gaia seems so sad at the state she is in my area. I look to you with such hope and KNOW She WILL prevail! Why? Because SHE can live without us, we however, cannot live without Her. And for that, I humbly bow before her in grace and humility, that she give me another chance in helping me tend to the area where she is so sad right now in the United States”

So in response… and for this valuable knowledge to reach the wider world…

Especially for Bridget…and those who are struggling with restoring fertility to soil…here’s a little secret…and what I have done and continue to do to restore health to the soil…

I pee in a bucket and mix it 10:1 with rainwater…it is marvellous liquid fertiliser and helps to get good bacteria developing in the soil.

However if you are on serious medication it’s best not to use it!

Fresh urine is high in nitrogen, moderate in phosphorus and low in potassium and can act as an excellent high-nitrogen liquid fertiliser

In a healthy person, urine is sterile.

Urine is great as an activator for compost heaps and, in highly concentrated form, as a weed-killer.

Dilute fresh urine at a 10:1 ratio and apply to the root-zone of fruiting plants like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, or to leafy crops like cabbage, broccoli, spinach and lettuce every two weeks or as needed.
Dilute fresh urine at a 20:1 ratio and water in to the root zone of seedlings and new transplants.

So, there you have it folks! No more supporting chemical fertilisers or paying extraordinary amounts of money for organic fertiliser…get yourself a bucket and a watering can and help Mother Earth the natural way!

Now that’s out of the way, here’s an update on garden work today…this has involved an immense amount of cutting back. I have stacked all the cuttings and wood into various big piles to biodegrade naturally, whilst at the same time providing essential habitat for hibernators and small mammals.

You can see from the followings pics the difference this has made in terms of light and space for the woodland floor to regenerate.

Bealtaine Cottage Good Life membership is 12 euros per year and allows me a small income to continue to grow the Bealtaine Project both here in Ireland and in the hearts and minds of good people all over the world.

I’ve encouraged my husband to pee in various areas of our patch to great effect, and in the corners of Chicken World where my girls live … male wee keeps the foxes away, unfortunately our dogs are all girls so it’s left to my Lovely Hubby to do the honours 🙂

Oh my sweet friend, I am in tears reading this. Thank you. Thank you so very much. This journey has been such an emotional one. When you realize you finally found your calling, and yet, everything seems like something is trying to prevent you from obtaining that reality, it becomes a no-brainer understanding and something so easily attained as to come to the realization that in the end it does not matter. What matters is that my heart and soul belong to Mother Earth. And I will do everything I can to show her how much she means to me. I am printing this out and hanging this over my desk as a reminder. We are all in this together, all of us are Her care givers. I am humbled and honored to know you, Colette. I can only pray I do you proud over here in the States by giving to Mother Earth what you have magnificently done over in Ireland for Her. Much love to you, Bridget

Well that certainly explains a lot. I’ve had high suspensions that the various male members of my household through the years have been peeing on my compost pile as a sort of joke on me. I guess the joke is really on them after all. No wonder everything has always been so green in the back garden. Take heart dear Bridgete Birkner, along with Colette’s good advice, gather as much leaf mulch as you can and compost it in your garden or in the compost pile every year. It takes years to grow good soil but have patience and bless you for caring for Mother Earth!

Thank you, Colette! You have reminded me of this at just the right time! I’ve known it for years but let it slip so far into the background you might say I’d forgotten. Much needed reminder as I was just trying to figure a good accelerator for my first compost piles without chicken manure or another source of “starter”.

Sounds like a very useful resource, lol. Another thought for Bridget: a garden is a marriage between a human and Nature. In my experience it can take a while for this energetic relationship to bed in. Over time the relationship becomes akin to symbiotic. The gardener knows what the Garden needs to be in balance and the Garden knows what the gardener needs for balance. The weeds that spring up aren’t just an indicator of soil condition. Many “weeds” have medicinal properties and they are often the very thing the gardener happens to need for her or his own balance. One year it may be nettle; another it may be mullein or yarrow or dandelion… The Garden begins to accept the gardener as part of Itself and so it produces what is conducive to balance of the Whole (which now includes the gardener.) I’ve even seen this kind of dynamic responsiveness to overall needs happen with machinery – a newly installed water pump for the bore that began by malfunctioning but over 10 days or so adjusted itself perfectly to the multiple demands it was fulfilling. It was quite remarkable. Soil that hasn’t previously been lovingly cultivated takes a while to adjust I’ve found. The first season or two can be disappointing. But over time the change in energy is quite palpable. The energy of an uncultivated plot can be quite wild and raw, almost bordering on aggression, but gradually, with love and attention, this mellows and harmony grows between Garden and gardener.